Yeah, Instructs is more for the young guys to get more work and a full month with the entire Indians player development staff. The older guys all go play fall/winter ball somewhere to get more innings and at bats.....while a handful of the older guys who missed time with injuries get some time in Instructs as well to make up some of the at bats and innings.

Interesting to see so many "veterans" even including guys like Rondon who, given his innings this year and his relatively advanced level, seems like an odd invitee. Maybe he is just there to get in some conditioning.

Denny, I am pretty sure it is setup the same way this year. With 58 players in camp and only a handful of games, there are guys there just getting in work and others there just for development purposes. A high percentage of the roster is guys are the 2007 and 2008 Draft or UDFAs. Rondon makes some sense as he is still working through some things to solidify his delivery a little bit since he gets sloppy at times with it. Also needs continued work on refining his slider and changeup, so I think he is there more for continued instruction rather than to participate in games and accrue more innings.

By the way, I liked your article on the instructional league last year. Would you mind if I posted it on the site, or you updating it and posting? Would help some of the fans get to know more about it. Lemme know. It is okay either way.

MadThinker88 wrote:Any chance guys like Rondon are going to 'the Instructs' so the Tribe can get a better sense to cover him with a roster spot (or not)??

Possibly. But, I think that a guy like Rondon is there just for the extra instruction. Also, I don't think Rondon is a slam dunk to be rostered. They may risk exposing him considering he is still pretty raw and has yet to pitch above A+.

A total of 58 players are expected to take part in the FIL. The first wave of players was due to report Wednesday night, with exhibition games beginning Monday....The Indians are getting Miller ready to pitch in the Dominican Winter League, where he'll likely log 20-40 innings of work.

"He's doing great," Atkins said of Miller. "He recently went back to Dr. [Thomas] Graham, who performed the surgery, and he feels very confident he's well on his way to being back to 100 percent."

No word on Diaz's VISA status, but with him coming stateside for the first time I would say a good guess is they indeed have been finally cleared up. I'll see if I can get some clarification sometime here in the offseason when/if I get a chance to speak to someone on it before spring training.